According to Hinduism everyone must reap the results of their past Karma. One must acknowledge the influence of tendencies inherited from past births. Pleasure and pain are inevitable when one accepts a body. Sri Ramakrishna used to illustrate this through a variety of examples. In the famous poem “Chandi”, composed by Kavi Kankan, the hero Kalu although born as a result of a boon of the Divine Mother, was yet sent to prison and made to suffer there. Again, another devotee by name Srimanta had to suffer endlessly although his mother Khullana was very devoted to the Divine Mother. Sri Ramakrishna would also site an instance of the woodcutter who because of his devotion to the Divine Mother had Her vision, but still had to continue his profession of woodcutting and earn his livelihood. Again, in the Bhagavata Purana it is mentioned that Devaki and Vasudev, the parents of Lord Krishna, were in prison at the time of his birth. They had the vision of Lord Vishnu who appeared before them with four hands, holding a mace, a discus, a conch shell and a lotus respectively. They were in ecstasy, yet they could not get out of the prison and had to suffer there.

Thus Sri Ramakrishna would point out that pleasure and pain cannot be avoided in this world. Human life is a complex game of opposites determined by various factors including results of actions of past births which is also called Prarabdha Karma in the Shastras. Apparently favourable circumstances of birth, affluence, etc. do not rule out pain or suffering. Hence, according to Sri Ramakrishna one should not be bothered too much by these and should earnestly endeavor not to be attached to the resultant effects of Karma. One should be focused on the one and only purpose of human birth namely realization of God or Ultimate Truth.